When I was a young lad not a lot older than my son is now, I began using coloring sheets as an activity I could do with my father. I really enjoyed working on them but I also enjoyed the one on one time with my father and having something we could do together. So you can imagine how keen I am to continue this tradition and now begin having fun with my boy and some coloring pages.

A lot of the activities kids do these days are very expensive or very hard for me to join in with. For example, I certainly can’t skateboard, I can’t swim and I definitely do not know how to use a PC or Xbox to play games. I am lost when it comes to computers, I really am. I know it is inevitable that as my son grows that he will soon enough be wanting to do things on his own and being seen with his dad would be grounds for teasing from his friends so I am making a huge effort to spend as much free time as I can with him now and really make every moment count. They say time is the most precious gift you can give to a youngster and I am trying hard to live by that. It seems increasingly hard to find activities that Fathers can do with their little ones. Mums seem to get most of the fun.

If you want to have some good fun with your kids you should download some Coloring Pages from a good website. As he colors I tell him the names of the colors and he is already picking them up easily, especially his favourites Green and Brown. Every time he begins to use a word I have taught him I really get a unique buzz that you have to be a dad to understand. I really appreciate all the little contributions I can make. I also tell him the names of whatever he is currently coloring, like an arm, a leg, a tree, a bus and so on. All learning really comes from repetition so by saying these names over and over he will pick them up fast.

He will soon be old enough that in a year or so we will be able to break out the paints and see what he is like using them on the Coloring Pages. I know he will love this although I am already nervous at the idea of the chaos it could make! I am sure his eyes will go wide the first time I mix two colors together to make a brand new one, such as red and yellow combining to make orange. It is so rewarding to see his progress over time as he learns without knowing he is doing so. I can really see how his ability to concentrate has improved.

Sometimes he really just loses himself in the work and goes quiet, determined to do good and his hand eye concentration has really come on in leaps and bounds. He seems to have quickly learned that by going slower his accuracy improves and things are easier overall, a great little lesson for life there! He is too young yet to start trying to sign his name on his work so I ask him to draw me his face as a signature and he always does so with a big smile on it, which tells me he had a good time working on it!

I have a ton of scrapbooks now, all filled with his completed pages. I suspect I will love looking through these when I am older. The rest will go up on the walls of the house, mostly in the lounge or conservatory I imagine. By showing them off proudly I want to make clear to my boy how precious they are to me. By this I am hoping to build his self-confidence which was something I still suffer a lack of, so am keen to give my son the best head start in life that I can. When we get visitors to the house, whether friends or family you can also be sure they will comment on the artworks and tell my son what a great job he did. It seems to be having a good effect to as he has started to become more outgoing and will talk to near strangers now about his works, whats colors he used etc. Whereas before he would have been quiet with some folks, now he often offers to make them one straight away so they can take it home with them!

Me and my wee lad are big fans of Disney’s movies. So you can be sure I always have Disney pictures on standby. Give him anything with Pluto or Donald Duck on and he will be very happy! Even the newer Disney stars like Handy Manny are very popular with him and I am happy that like all of their products, these characters are positive role models. You don’t have to worry about anything your child may see when they are watching a Disney show! My secret wish and hope is that when he grows a little he will enjoy superheroes as much as I did at his age. I ate, slept and drank Superheroes practically when I was a young teen and really hope we can have this in common too. Batman and Superman were my favourites and I have already seen plenty of cool pictures that we could have a lot of fun together working on! I think all boys grow into a thirst for safe adventure and drama so hopefully my wishes will come true and soon I can be telling him about the adventures of his heroes while we select colors for Batman’s cape!

At special occasions like the Holidays we pretty much blanket the walls of our house in Coloring Pages. In December there are pictures of Santa, Rudolph the Reindeer, Sleighs, Christmas Trees, Elves, Carol Singers and much more all over the house. While at Halloween no matter where you go in our home there will probably be a Pumpkin, Bat, Little Devil or Ghoul staring at you! I am careful to pack them all away carefully afterwards and intend to still be using them decades from now, much to the probable embarrassment of my son. So if you are a parent and are looking for easy and low cost ways to spend quality time with your children I would say use Coloring Pages, you really can’t go wrong with them.

If you want a no-hassle website with lots of free pictures to color in and a wide range of all your childs favourite tv and movie characters then try my favourite which is kidslikecoloringpages.com – they have all the most popular stars like Princess, Spiderman, Handy Manny Coloring Pages and Barbie. Girls would love the Hello Kitty Coloring Pages especially.